As a student and game designer I am trying to understand and solve the problems I face in education, and my life long learning goals. While I have my opinions and ideas for possible solutions, they mean nothing if teachers, students, policy makers and the general public are unwilling to open their minds to challenge themselves, their systems and their futures. I am but one person, and such cannot implement true solutions alone.
Economy is about flow with effects, and the flow of knowledge can have many, many effects. The flow of information is based on communication. There are more than one form of communication, and each has many possible problems. Those problems need to be addressed for the sake of students and the future. That's what this is all about; the economy of information and dealing with the question voiced in so many variations, by so many students. However, more than that, I ask, when will you use THIS in real life? A solution never implemented is as helpful as advice never heard.
THE QUESTION:
For years students have asked when a particular piece of information, a particular skill or way of understanding would possibly be used in real life. This is a question of value. The question asks about the value of what's being taught. Is there any reason to go through the unpleasantness of learning what's being taught? It also says that the students don't see a reason, want to hear why you think it is worth knowing or want to compare their own views with what you say. It's not enough to just share the information. It never has been, and never will be. Humans aren't that simple.
Merely having a goal doesn't generate motivation. Knowing in one's head that something is good for one's self doesn't always motivate sufficiently. There has to be a desire, a personal goal. For me, learning something fascinating or useful can be enough, because I desire to learn such things. However, the limit to my motivation in those situations is the limit of my desire to attain those goals. For many people, the question mentioned is a search for motivation. They are assessing whether there is a good, motivating, reason to apply themselves. While abstractness can help make an idea more flexible, it also distances it from application. How the abstract can be applied is where the motivation is likely to be found, because that's how personal goals can be reached.
THE PROBLEM:
The problem is not that people have reason to ask the question in the first place, but that the lesson hasn't been learned by those being asked. After being asked many times how to eat a particular food, it makes sense to change things around to help those asking. Then they might understand how to eat the food before they attempt it. However, an explanation without application doesn't work well for many people. I know because I've tried to explain ideas in this fashion. It doesn't work. Explanation without application is as bad, or worse than, application without information.
Let's continue with the food example. After putting up posters that show people eating the food, the owners might receive fewer questions. The reason is that the customers receive the information in a situation where they are interested, have the ability to try it and can easily review the information while making attempts. This is one of the reasons that video games are considered a good vehicle for education, because the difficulty balancing and in-game help specifically address this aspect of teaching and learning. If a person can't understand the game well enough to have fun, they aren't likely to play.
The only real difference in such a situation is access to quality materials when the content is useful. Some might point out textbooks, to which most students and some teachers might laugh, raise an eyebrow or make rude comments. Simply put, textbooks are not very good for the most part. There are exceptions, but those exceptions aren't used enough. Textbooks seem to have the most usefulness as reference materials, not teaching aids. Web based materials can be a big help, when they can be used for more than small quotes, and are actually of good quality, easy to use, have the information you need and you're allowed to use them.
THE MOMENT:
Rather than talk about a particular solution to the "problem", it seems more important to define the moment in which students learn. Since each student is different, it can require different stimulus and situations to bring about that moment. As stated before, I'm writing this as a student.
First of all there is a desire, for whatever reason, to be able to do or learn something. This is the push to grow and change in a way that allows you to improve. It's not always pleasant or comfortable, but it's a part of the moment. Normally this is called motivation. Both of the following links cover motivation in more depth.
http://edubacon.com/2009/06/08/weekly-special-motivating-learners/
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Student_motivatation.html
There is also the situation, which consists of preparation and context. Preparation is the lead up in concepts, understanding and experiences that provide the learner with the mental constructs needed to "get" the new skill, concept or material. The context is made up of external things like surroundings, people and expectations that can help and/or hinder the process.
When the preparation, context and motivation all contribute to the process there is a good chance learning will occur. Yes, that is an oversimplification and no, I will not make any guarantees. This is a general description of the moment when learning happens. If the learner is not willing, it becomes highly unlikely they will learn. If they want to learn, there's a pretty good chance it can happen. To be able to build the new mental structure, behavior, they need conceptual building blocks. Without sufficient mental resources it becomes unlikely the student will learn. The surroundings, attitudes and approach can discourage and misdirect, or encourage and guide. That's about it, so far as I have found.
THE REALITY:
The goals of students and teachers don't match. It's much like the goals of game designers and game players not matching.
"#7 The Player Does What's Efficient, Not What's Fun"
That's the title of an article section that I will quote below. We could replace fun with educational, learn, or beneficial, for educational endeavors. Along the same lines, game could be replaced by class, curriculum, course or a handful of other terms. So, please keep that in mind.
"Your goal is to make a game that is fun. But somewhat contrary to intuition, having fun is NOT the goal of the player. The goal of the player is to conquer whatever the game throws at them. Fun is the expected byproduct of this endeavor. The player wants to have fun without having to seek it out.
The player will do what is most efficient and effective, short of doing what they perceive as cheating. Consider a side-scrolling brawler where the player has two attacks. The first attack causes the character to leap into the air, dive down onto an enemy, grab him, spin him around, then toss him into a group of other enemies, knocking them down. A developer could put quite a lot of time into tweaking this maneuver, and have lots of fun executing it during playtesting. The second attack is a simple punch.
But here's the problem – the simple punch deals five times the damage. Why would the player bother using the former attack when the punch is so effective? "Because it's so much fun!" the developer would interject. Then why are you not forcing the player to use it?
We've all played a game like this. We're having lots of fun using a bunch of really cool attacks, abilities, maneuvers, etc. Then we find the infinite ammo rocket launcher that kills everything onscreen instantly, and the game is suddenly less fun. But why? We could always choose to put the weapon away. The problem is that manually handicapping ourselves within the game's rule structure is not fun either.
When testing your game, play it to win. Don't play it to have fun. It's your job to make sure that the two overlap.
There are exceptions to this, of course, where players will just mess around with a game to have fun rather than to progress. But the players who reach this point of exception are the people who are already hooked into your game. It's the new players who need to be won over. Force them to have fun, whether they like it or not!"
- http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/GregMcClanahan/20090723/2561/Fatal_Flaws_in_Flash_Game_Design_and_Development.php
Basically, the goal(s) of the people who create the system is/are the means to the users achieving their own goal(s). As such, the stuff used to achieve educational goals should be created with the goals of students in mind. Most are aiming for the grade, to get a degree, to get a job, to live a financially stable life, among other goals. Sure they may be interested in learning and understanding the topic, but the larger system values the grade, as evidence of content mastery. Unfortunately, learning is NOT the primary goal of a student, it's getting good grades.
While some students really want to learn, they won't need special treatment near as much if the means of getting a good grade is actually showing content mastery. By forcing the average student to learn to succeed, the students who want to learn are likely in a better position to succeed.
If students need to do homework as practice, reward it accordingly. What's the point of practice? The point is to do the action repeatedly, because it makes it easier to remember and gives experience. Accuracy is nowhere in the value of practice. Instead, it's all about participation, so rewarding participation makes sense. A little participation grade and quality feedback is the format I have seen as the most effective model for practice homework.
"De-emphasizing Grades
Emphasize mastery and learning rather than grades. Ames and Ames (1990) report on two secondary school math teachers. One teacher graded every homework assignment and counted homework as 30 percent of a student's final grade. The second teacher told students to spend a fixed amount of time on their homework (thirty minutes a night) and to bring questions to class about problems they could not complete. This teacher graded homework as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, gave students the opportunity to redo their assignments, and counted homework as 10 percent of the final grade. Although homework was a smaller part of the course grade, this second teacher was more successful in motivating students to turn in their homework." ... "Mistakes were viewed as acceptable and something to learn from.
Researchers recommend de-emphasizing grading by eliminating complex systems of credit points; they also advise against trying to use grades to control nonacademic behavior (for example, lowering grades for missed classes) (Forsyth and McMillan, 1991; Lowman 1990). Instead, assign ungraded written work, stress the personal satisfaction of doing assignments, and help students measure their progress."
Just as a note, ungraded assignments like this also give a great opportunity to understand the less standard students. If a note explaining why the assignment wasn't done is just as acceptable as the ungraded assignment, student - teacher communication becomes a bigger part of the class structure. Similar notes could also be made a part of all class work. To make this more effective, I'd suggest passing the notes back with a response.
"Design tests that encourage the kind of learning you want students to achieve. Many students will learn whatever is necessary to get the grades they desire. If you base your tests on memorizing details, students will focus on memorizing facts. If your tests stress the synthesis and evaluation of information, students will be motivated to practice those skills when they study. (Source: McKeachie, 1986)
Avoid using grades as threats. As McKeachie (1986) points out, the threat of low grades may prompt some students to work hard, but other students may resort to academic dishonesty, excuses for late work, and other counterproductive behavior.
Motivating Students by Responding to Their Work
Give students feedback as quickly as possible. Return tests and papers promptly, and reward success publicly and immediately. Give students some indication of how well they have done and how to improve. Rewards can be as simple as saying a student's response was good, with an indication of why it was good, or mentioning the names of contributors: "Cherry's point about pollution really synthesized the ideas we had been discussing." (Source: Cashin, 1979)
Reward success. Both positive and negative comments influence motivation, but research consistently indicates that students are more affected by positive feedback and success. "
...
"Be specific when giving negative feedback. Negative feedback is very powerful and can lead to a negative class atmosphere. Whenever you identify a student's weakness, make it clear that your comments relate to a particular task or performance, not to the student as a person. Try to cushion negative comments with a compliment about aspects of the task in which the student succeeded. (Source: Cashin, 1979)"
Another note, making it clear what is wrong and how to correct it is a big part of this. If you are willing to help fix the problem, it helps you, the teacher, come across as caring about the student's success. I've had teachers refuse to help, and it normally comes across as, "I don't care." If the student needs to figure it out for them self, tell them that and give what assistance you can without giving away the answer.
"Avoid demeaning comments. Many students in your class may be anxious about their performance and abilities. Be sensitive to how you phrase your comments and avoid offhand remarks that might prick their feelings of inadequacy.
Avoid giving in to students' pleas for "the answer" to homework problems. When you simply give struggling students the solution, you rob them of the chance to think for themselves. Use a more productive approach (adapted from Fiore, 1985):
* Ask the students for one possible approach to the problem.
* Gently brush aside students’ anxiety about not getting the answer by refocusing their attention on the problem at hand.
* Ask the students to build on what they do know about the problem.
* Resist answering the question "is this right?" Suggest to the students a way to check the answer for themselves.
* Praise the students for small, independent steps.
If you follow these steps, your students will learn that it is all right not to have an instant answer. They will also learn to develop greater patience and to work at their own pace. And by working through the problem, students will experience a sense of achievement and confidence that will increase their motivation to learn."
- http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motiv.htm
THE SYSTEM:
As a game designer I occasionally look for good articles on game design. Recently I've bee looking more into tabletop role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons is likely the most well known example, but it is only one type of such games. Depending on the people you talk with, the game could be described as the precursor to hack & slash video games to a wonderful collaborative storytelling game. However, there is something to note about any game, the system and rules matter. In one article I found ( http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/system_does_matter.html ) the author describes three types of goals for the experience and three types of mechanics to achieve those goals. With that in mind the author concludes that the worst thing you can do is try to be all things to all people, though I disagree on that point.
The reason I disagree is that a system could give the tools to adapt the system to different types of goals and mechanics. Such a system would be an adapting system that allows for customization as needed, without the experience and skill needed to do it your self. Sure, you still have to figure out and choose how to customize the system to the situation, but that's why there is a human in charge. In a tabletop game it's the Game Master, and in the classroom it's the teacher.
Personally, I find the current mainstream education systems to be much like D&D. You pick a major (class), with the option of changing it, and then you follow the strict rules of encounters, be they classes or combat. With the large focus of D&D rules being on combat, the style of the system influences gameplay in that direction. In school, the grading and recognition systems influence the education experience in the same way. If most of your system focus is on taking the user through a particular set of actions, they will learn to depend on your leadership, or reject it. If the focus is collecting points, they will optimize how they collect points based on their goals.
One of the current big things in games is "sandbox" style gameplay. It has functional rules that define capabilities of objects in the game and the players ability to affect them. The name comes from the behavior of a sandbox that children play in. It becomes their space while they are in charge. If you want to learn more about this direction, I suggest reading this article http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4081/the_history_and_theory_of_sandbox_.php . Such a system is made to encourage creativity and exploration of possibilities.
One of the downfalls in plenty of games is the User Interface, the UI, the tenuous connection between the user and the experience. This is also a sore spot for students and teachers, from what I've observed, when it comes to education. In another article ( http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4110/upping_your_games_usability.php ) it had this at the beginning, "Games that are hard to control or that mystify users by not providing useful or sufficient feedback are pretty damn frustrating to play." The question about when the content of a class will be useful is a request for feedback to deal with being mystified, so it seems relevant, at least to me. On a similar note, there are a lot of design elements that can give clues to what a person should do including, but not limited to, the UI. More about these can be found in this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4115/no_more_wrong_turns.php .
Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan
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